Essential Shakespeare Handbook

Rating:
Summary: Another Dorling-Kindersley children's book
Review: A good book to leave lying around in dentist's waiting rooms, but if you actually want to concentrate on reading about Shakespeare you'll need something much more grown-up. Anyone with such a short attention-span as this book imagines its readers to suffer from would have trouble getting to the end of a Shakespeare sonnet, never mind a whole play. This book is all bright pictures and sound-bites -- it's completely facile, a series of short-cuts to the aspects of Shakespeare which for some reason people think high school students need. They probably aren't the ones you want anyway.

Rating:
Summary: A Must for Every Library at Home and at School
Review: Brimming with fabulous illustrations and information, The Essential Shakespeare Handbook is also a good read. (a quality lacking in most books of this type, and most especially the Oxford Companion). The authors have not only given an overall history of Shakespeare's works but also of the Elizabethan Period in general. I loved the way they divided the plays into color-coded categories of history plays, comedies, tragedies and romances. There is an introduction to each play which provides background on what inspired Shakespeare to write on that particular subject. I find it most helpful that they give a capsule bio of each character in a play before summarizing each act. I loved the way they provide guidance on how to read the play as well as what to look for when viewing the play. This is such an amazing book that I have ordered a dozen copies and regularly give it to friends and relatives (it made a great graduation gift). Many of the recipients are now ordering multiple copies to give to their own friends. We all feel that this book is the best yet of the hundreds of reference books on the works of Shakespeare.

Rating:
Summary: The Key to the Bard
Review: No teacher or student of Shakespeare can afford NOT to own this book.

I wish I'd had it when I was first confronted by the Bard. It only takes one tedious production to get off on the wrong foot. Like many people, I didn't know quite where to start with an author I was told was England's greatest poet and playwright. Thisis the guide I needed then.

Now, years later, I already find it indispensable. I have tested the book before seeing Shakespeare plays I did not know well: it works!

Early essays place Shakespeare in the context of the theatre and politics of his times. Later essays dissect his language and poetry in an highly illuminating manner. The heart of the book, though, ticks around Shakespeare's plays. Divided into genres, each play is deftly summarised
(with key speeches highlighted) and analysed from both theatrical and
literary points of view.

And making the Essential Shakespeare Handbook a true delight both to read and peruse, it is packed with illustrations of famous productions as well as of opera, ballet and film adaptations. To students and theatregoers alike, this book offers a key to loving Shakespeare.

Rating:
Summary: This is the one you want
Review: Someone once said that no reader ever buys a book because of who the publisher is but DK Books is an exception to that rule. Everythig they publish is wonderfully written, packed with informattion and fun.

Essential Shakespeare gives you an overview of Shakespeare's life, looks at the different argurments about his "true" identity and talks about the role and realities of theater life in the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages. Next it launches into in depth discussions about each play, long poem and gives a quick look at the sonnets.

The book sumarizes each play, gives you a who's who among the characters and then tells you in detail what happens act by act. Then it talks about how the play has been shown to audiences through out the years. Like all DK books it's full of pictures and sidebars.

I spent hours readig this book and only put it down because I had to get up early the next morning. Essential Shakespeare is not only a great gift for a Shakespeare lover but it's a really effective way to itroduce the works of the Bard to someone who didn't know much or anything about them before.

Alls well that ends well, this book is most definitely worth the money.

Rating:
Summary: Useful, worthwhile, and attractive.
Review: The Essential Shakespeare Handbook is just that, the first place to turn for the answers. It has taken its place on my bookshelf right along side of The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. I'll bet I take it down from that shelf more often than I do its companion.

D-K's colorful Handbook has a real advantage over others in the field: it's attractive and approachable for a very wide audience. Who knows? Your kids might even decide that Will was a cool guy.

Rating:
Summary: Colourful Companion to Shakespeare Plays
Review: This colourful book presents nice summary of all the plays,
the characters and the historical background.

Every chapter is sprinkled with random quotes
from the plays and matching photos.

It also presents statistics like number of lines and
precentage of prose versus poetry.

Of course knowing how many lines are in an Act
is no substitute for actually reading or seeing the play.

In a DK book with "Essential Handbook" in the title,
I expected charts, cross-references, glossary, maps,
comparison-tables, bibliography and references.

Example, Where the heck is Angiers?
Even Folger's paperback King John has a map showing Angiers.

While Crystal & Crystal's "Shakespeare's Words" has no pictures,
it is full of information and charts for a serious reader
and English language student.

This book makes light night reading inspite of the small font.
Shakespeare is all about language which this book is not about.
Use this book as a supplement to Folgers or Oxford texts
not as a substitute.

I give it four stars, because the DK's production is
great as usual.

- Dr.Mosh http://www.cs.albany.edu/~mosh

Rating:
Summary: This isn't the one you want, if you want accuracy
Review: This is a beautifully shiny, glossy, pretty book which will briefly catch the attention of many children, but it isn't really a trustworthy reference book on its subject -- it creates a general, hyped-up, feel-good impression, but lots of the 'facts' it touts aren't really established, and it never lets on which of its contents are based on proper evidence (and if so, which evidence) and which aren't, nor which of the pictures are authentic and which just happened to be out of copyright. This may be OK for the 5th graders who'll be given it for Christmas, but if you really want to know about Shakespeare and his times and everything that posterity has done with him you want a grown-up reference book like the Bedford Guide or the Oxford Companion.